EESE: Graduate Education in Research Ethics for Scientists and Engineers

University Of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, Mayaguez PR

Investigators

Abstract

This award is made under the Ethics Education in Science and Engineering Program (EESE: NSF06-524). In this project, an interdisciplinary team of researchers and educators is integrating research ethics into graduate programs in the life sciences, biotechnology, and engineering. The team is creating a coordinated series activities in research ethics at the graduate education level in order to prepare both faculty and graduates who are members of the growing community of scholars who highly aware of ethical issues in science and engineering research and committed to the advancement of integrity, honesty, and responsibility in these spheres. The activities targeting graduate students include three workshops, a freestanding course, and a capstone activity designed to provide graduate students with a conceptual framework in research ethics and related problem-solving skills. Faculty members are participating in professional development workshops in order to learn how to design effective research ethics cases and materials to provide graduate students with practice and guidance in confronting ethical challenges in research. Key workshops are "ethics across the curriculum" (EAC) and faculty-mentoring workshops to foster collaboration between faculty experienced with integrating ethics and those new to the task. Faculty teams are engaged in developing cases and classroom materials in an EAC Toolkit, an online environment for developing best practices in ethics teaching (NSF SES-0551779). This project includes detailed assessment efforts. It is engaged in identifying project components that are good candidates for transfer and use in other institutions. It is also documenting its deliberate efforts to ensure the project's sustainability beyond the period of NSF support. Intellectual Merit: This project is adapting and integrating successful approaches to ethics pedagogy. EAC activities are being integrated with a freestanding course in graduate research ethics to develop new synergies between the two. The project is creating new understandings and insights in moral psychology. Studies have shown that mastery of teachable skill sets underlies exemplary behavior and good works. Activities being developed for the graduate and faculty workshops, the research ethics course, and the mentoring program will help test and assess these understandings in the context of graduate research ethics. Broader Impacts: Broader impact is planned in four different dimensions. First, the faculty community involved in the design of the free-standing course and accompanying materials in graduate research ethics is also designing many of them in Spanish to make them realistically "accessible" as well as available to Spanish-speaking stakeholders. Second, the set of faculty development workshops in research ethics - a tool of high potential value - is being documented to facilitate its transfer to and use in other institutions. Third, the project is providing mentoring opportunities to graduate students in several outreach contexts at the undergraduate and high school levels. One such activity is a summer camp held at UPRM for incoming science and engineering students. Finally, this project is opening a dialog between North and South America. Stakeholders are exchanging EAC expertise and innovations in research ethics teaching and practice, cases, exercises, and modules. This exchange is disseminating the ethical issues and challenges faced by scientists and engineers working in diverse contexts. This is especially important in disseminating the global impacts of engineering and scientific research and practice.